Hugh Samuel Johnson (August 5, 1881 – April 15, 1942) was a U.S.
Army officer, businessman, speech writer, government official and
newspaper columnist. He is best known as a member of the Brain Trust
of
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt in 1932–34. He wrote numerous speeches for
FDR and helped plan the New Deal. Appointed head of the National
Recovery Administration (NRA) in 1933, he was highly energetic in his
"blue eagle" campaign to reorganize American business to reduce
competition and raise wages and prices. Schlesinger (1958) and Ohl
(1985) conclude that he was an excellent organizer, but that he was
also domineering, abusive, outspoken, and unable to work harmoniously
with his peers. The NRA was terminated by a ruling of the Supreme
Court, and Johnson left the administration after a little more than a
year.[3]

The Army Distinguished Service Medal, awarded to Brig. Gen. Hugh S.
Johnson

He was born in
Fort Scott, KansasFort Scott, Kansas in 1881[1][4] to Samuel L. and
Elizabeth (née Mead) Johnson.[5]
His paternal grandparents, Samuel and Matilda (MacAlan) Johnson,
emigrated to the
United StatesUnited States from
IrelandIreland in 1837 and originally
settled in Brooklyn, New York.[5] Hugh's father was a lawyer, and he
attended public school in Wichita, Kansas, before the family moved to
Alva, OklahomaAlva, Oklahoma Territory.[5] He attempted to run away from home to
join the Oklahoma state militia at the age of 15, but he was
apprehended by his family before he left town.[6] His father promised
to try to secure him an appointment to the
United StatesUnited States Military
Academy (West Point), and was successful in obtaining an alternate
appointment.[1][4][6] Johnson himself discovered that the individual
who was first in line for the appointment was too old, and convinced
him to step aside so that Johnson could enter the Academy.[6]
Military career[edit]
Johnson entered West Point in 1899,[1][4][7] and graduated and was
commissioned a second lieutenant in the 1st Cavalry on June 11,
1903.[1][7]
Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur was one of his West Point classmates.[4]
From 1907 to 1909 he was stationed at Pampanga, Philippines, but later
was transferred to California.[1][7] In the early years of the 20th
century, most national parks in the
United StatesUnited States were administered by
units of the
United StatesUnited States Army.[8] Johnson was subsequently stationed
at Yosemite and Sequoia national parks.[1] He was promoted to first
lieutenant on March 11, 1911, and was named superintendent of Sequoia
National Park in 1912.[1]
Wishing to follow in his father's footsteps, Johnson won permission
from General Enoch Crowder[6] to attend the University of California
(at Berkeley) where he received his
Bachelor of LawsBachelor of Laws degree (with
honors) in 1915 and his
Juris DoctorJuris Doctor in 1916 (doubling up on courses
to graduate in half the time required).[1][6] Transferring to the
Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG), from May to October 1916 he
served under General
John J. PershingJohn J. Pershing in
MexicoMexico with the Pancho Villa
Expedition.[1] promoted to captain on July 1, 1916, he transferred to
the JAG headquarters in Washington, D.C., in October 1916.[1][7] He
was promoted to major on May 15, 1917, and to lieutenant colonel on
August 5, 1917.[1][7] He was named Deputy Provost Marshal General in
October 1917,[1][9] and the same month was named to a Department of
War committee on military training (the U.S. had entered World War I
on April 6, 1917).[1][10]
As a captain, Johnson helped co-author the regulations implementing
the Selective Service Act of 1917.[4] Without Congressional
authorization, he ordered completed several of the initial first steps
needed to implement the draft.[6] The action could have led to his
court-martial had Congress not acted (a month later) to pass the
conscription law.[6] He was promoted to colonel on January 8, 1918,
and to brigadier general on April 15, 1918.[1][7][11] At the time of
his promotion, he was the youngest person, at the age of 36, to reach
the rank of brigadier general since the Civil War, and the youngest
West Point graduate to remain continuously in the service who had ever
reached the rank.[6] Ohl (1985) finds that Johnson was an excellent
second-in-command during the war in the Office of the Provost Marshal
under
Brigadier GeneralBrigadier GeneralEnoch H. CrowderEnoch H. Crowder as long as he was closely
watched and tightly supervised. His considerable talents were
effectively drawn upon in the planning and implementation of the
registration and draft before and during the conflict. However he was
never able to work smoothly with others.[12]
Upon his promotion to brigadier general, Johnson was appointed
director of the Purchase and Supply Branch of the General Staff in
April 1918,[1][6] and was promoted to Assistant Director of the
Purchase, Storage and Traffic Division of the General Staff in October
1918.[1] In this capacity, he worked closely with the War Industries
Board.[4] He favorably impressed many businessmen, including Bernard
Baruch (head of the War Industries Board).[4] These contacts later
proved critical in winning Johnson a position with President Franklin
D. Roosevelt's administration.[4] He was put in command of the 15th
Infantry Brigade which was part of the 8th Division, but the unit did
not deploy to Europe because the war had ended.[dubious –
discuss][13]
Johnson resigned from the U.S. Army on February 25, 1919.[13] For his
service in the Provost Marshal's office and in executing the draft, he
was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal in 1926.[13]
New DealNew Deal career[edit]
Johnson was named assistant general manager of the Moline Plow Company
on September 1, 1919.[13] Moline Plow's president, George Peek, and
Johnson were both supporters of the McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill,
a proposed federal law which would have established the first farm
price supports in U.S. history.[4]
Johnson left Moline Plow in 1927 to become an adviser to Bernard
Baruch.[14] He joined the
Brain Trust of
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt in the
1932 presidential election. His major role was drafting speeches, most
notably one that FDR delivered in Pittsburgh denouncing the reckless
spending of the Hoover administration and calling for a very
conservative fiscal policy.[15]
NRA[edit]
Johnson played a major role in the New Deal. In 1933 Roosevelt
appointed Johnson to administer the National Recovery Administration
(NRA). One author claims Johnson looked on Italian Fascist
corporativism as a kind of model.[16] He distributed copies of a
fascist tract called "The Corporate State" by one of Mussolini's
favorite economists, including giving one to Labor Secretary Frances
Perkins and asking her give copies to her cabinet.[17] The NRA
involved organizing thousands of businesses under codes drawn up by
trade associations and industries. He was recognized for his efforts
when Time named him Man of the Year of 1933—choosing him instead of
FDR.[18]

He was faltering badly by 1934, which historians ascribe to the
profound contradictions in NRA policies, compounded by heavy drinking
on the job. The NRA continued to deteriorate—it was abolished in
1935—and he came under attack by Labor Secretary
Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins for
having
FascistFascist inclinations. Therefore, Roosevelt fired Johnson in
September 1934 [19]
Sarah Lucille Turner, who had been one of the first women elected to
the Missouri House of Representatives, worked with Johnson for a time
while he was administrator of the NRA. [20]
The Business Plot[edit]

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Johnson was implicated by retired Marine Corps
MajorMajor General Smedley
Butler in the Business Plot, an alleged political conspiracy in 1933
to overthrow
United StatesUnited States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in
testimony before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, whose
deliberations began on November 20, 1934 and culminated in the
Committee's report to the
United StatesUnited States House of Representatives on
February 15, 1935. Johnson was not called before the committee because
"The committee will not take cognizance of names brought into the
testimony which constitute mere hearsay."
Journalism, later life and death[edit]
Upon leaving the Roosevelt administration, Johnson, who had long been
a successful essay writer for national magazines, now became a
syndicated newspaper columnist specializing in political commentary.
He supported Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election, but when the
Court-packing plan was announced in 1937 he denounced Roosevelt as a
would-be dictator. In 1939 he endorsed isolationism—staying out of
World War II; he endorsed
Wendell WillkieWendell Willkie the Republican candidate in
the 1940 presidential election.[12]
Johnson wrote a number of articles and stories. One future history
piece, The Dam, was written in 1911 and appears in the Sam Moskowitz
anthology, Science Fiction by Gaslight. In the story, Japan invades
and conquers California.[citation needed]
General
Hugh S. JohnsonHugh S. Johnson died in Washington, D.C., in April 1942 from
pneumonia.[2] He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Awards[edit]

Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)
Philippine Campaign Medal
Mexican Service Medal
World War IWorld War I Victory Medal (United States)

Cullum, George Washington. Biographical Register of the Officers and
Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.: From Its
Establishment, in 1802, to 1890. 3d ed. New York: Houghton, Mifflin,
1920.
Hampton, H. Duane. How the U.S. Cavalry Saved Our National Parks.
Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1971.
ISBN 0-253-13885-X
Hamby, Alonzo L. For the Survival of Democracy: Franklin Roosevelt and
the World Crisis of the 1930s. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004.
ISBN 0-684-84340-4
Hawley, Ellis W. The
New DealNew Deal and the Problem of Monopoly: A Study in
Economic Ambivalence (1966) on NRA
Ohl, John Kennedy.
Hugh S. JohnsonHugh S. Johnson and the New Deal. DeKalb, Ill.:
Northern Illinois Univ Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87580-110-2, standard
scholarly biography
Ohl, John Kennedy. "Tales Told by a New Dealer: General Hugh S.
Johnson," Montana: The Magazine Of Western History 1975 25(4): 66–77
Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr. The Coming of the
New DealNew Deal (1958), extensive
coverage of Johnson's NRA
White, James Terry. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1967.

Primary sources[edit]

Johnson, Hugh S. The Blue Eagle From Egg to Earth. New York:
Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1935.
Crawford, William H. "He Risked Disgrace to Speed the Draft." New York
Times. June 9, 1918.
Howard, C.B. "Our Twenty-one Generals of Forty Years and Under." New
York Times. August 24, 1919.
"Col. H. S. Johnson Deputy Provost Marshal." New York Times. January
25, 1918.
"
Hugh S. JohnsonHugh S. Johnson Dies in Capital." New York Times. April 16, 1942.
"Not Since the Armistice..." Time. September 25, 1933.
"Plans to Mobilize Schools to Aid War." New York Times. February 17,
1918.
"Promotes 10 Brigadiers." New York Times. April 17, 1918.